Auntie Grell
by Clockwork Storyteller
Summary: Grell Sutcliffe does not care about the humans whose cinematic records she collects, she is simply a reaper doing her job. However, that would all change after she has multiple assignments in the home of Baron Kingsley. (Content Warnings for death, poison, and murder. Also spoilers for recent chapters)
1. Prologue

Auntie Grell

Prologue: The Kingsley House

Grell Sutcliffe was waiting for the lady of the manor to climb into her bed, for that was when she would finally be able to collect the cinematic record. She sat on a tree branch, watching through the bedroom window as the Lady's servant helped her unpin her hair and took the candlestick away to the hall. Once the room was dim and the Lady was pulling her covers closer, the reaper moved. The Lady took a drink of some kind to her mouth, Grell getting closer as she died. It was not uncommon for these types of tragic accidents to occur, many people had died from confusing one shelf item for another and accidentally ingesting something toxic. This was just another collection and Grell was sure it would not be memorable once she had read the file, but she had been mistaken.

In the doorway, the servant stood still, her hand over her mouth. The Lady had brewed her own tea and was now dead, so the servant felt guilty for not having stopped the untimely demise of her mistress. She carried her one year old daughter in her arms, the child pointing in the direction of the bed post closest to the window.

"Who?" The girl asked, pointing. "Mama, who woman?"

Grell paused to look back at the two in the doorway, seeing a girl pointing straight at her and staring. She figured that child was likely close to death, if she could see a reaper, but did not think about the matter once she had climbed back out the window and left. Children of servants were pitiful and were not attended as much as noble children, so Grell was used to collecting their records. She did not dwell on the poor children and their short lives, she did her job and moved on. So it barely registered in her mind that a child had seen her, it was probably a sign that child was nearing the end of her life and likely would be dead in a few days. If she happened to land the assignment, she might not even recognize the child. She did not care about the cinematic records she collected or their sources. She simply put the latest collection in the library and departed for her next collection.

It was merely a week later that Grell was back at that manor to collect another record. This time it was the stable boy, who had a habit of sneaking into the kitchen and hiding a treat or two in his pockets. He, too, had mixed up two items and fallen dead to the effects of a poison. She waited for him to slink all the way to the ground before approaching him to extract his record. As she was reviewing his record, she heard a tapping on the window above her. She looked up when it did not cease, noticing a little girl pressed against the glass and looking down at her. Grell recognized her and waved, turning around immediately after to finish her job and disappear. She simply told herself to try and remember the name of the manor since it seemed the household was falling victim to the mistake of storing rat poison in the same cupboard as the flour. She practically expected them to all drop dead within the month. She laughed a little to herself as she wondered if the rest of the house would notice any reapers because she assumed they were all very close to their ends.

Since she kept so busy, she had forgotten about the manor after a month. So, she did not know that she had been incorrect about the residents all being near their demise. The Baron who owned the manor had fired most of his staff and demanded that his new staff keep the food and the toxins far from each other, not wanting his four year old son to perish as his mother had.

Baron Kingsley kept his wife's personal servant, her husband, and their one year old daughter but had fired everyone else. The trio had names he could not pronounce, as they were foreign and his Spanish-born wife had given them the equivalent in her native language, as she was had been their mistress since her fourteenth birthday. He had not bothered with their names until his wife's passing, when he had decided to keep them around for the sake of his son. His late wife's assistant had also been his son's nurse, and he determined it was best to keep her. Her name was Azucena, as given by his wife, and he had changed it to Lily. Her husband was a man known as Lobo, so he was renamed Wolf. Their daughter was named in their native tongue, his wife giving her the Spanish equivalents so her name was Lavanda Manzanilla. His wife had given them a surname since they had one that could not be translated, choosing Hierbabuena. Hierbabuena was peppermint, so Baron Kingsley changed their surname to Peppermint.

The Peppermint family continued to serve the Baron, and went with him to a different home he owned. He had decided he could not bear the rooms his wife had last walked and that his son would do better in a new landscape. The house also had servants already working in it, which meant he did not have to worry about staff appointments just yet. The house Grell Sutcliffe had associated with Lady Kingsley was left empty, and there were no more deaths in the Baron's staff or family in the time before the reaper inevitably forgot about the Lady, the stable boy, and the girl that saw her twice.


	2. Little Girl

Auntie Grell

Chapter One: Little Girl

Ferdinand Kingsley held out his arms for Lavanda to place a jacket on him. She buttoned him up, pulled his hair out of it gently before tying it into a ponytail and buffed his shoes. He nudged her impatiently before leaving the room to join his father for breakfast. Lavanda made the nine year old boy's bed before returning to the room she shared with her parents and getting changed from her night gown to her day clothes. She looked over at one of the maids, who had been feverish the night before and went to the kitchen for tea to give her. She brewed the tea and went to the servant's quarters, setting the tea down on the stand next to the maid and wishing her well. She left the room and went to the garden, pulling out the weeds as asked. It was a difficult task, especially for a six year old, but she worked hard.

In exchange for her work, the Baron gave her picture books. It was not money, like her parents received, but she was determined to obtain more. She even asked some of the other servants if any of them happened to know how to read, so she might learn how. Ferdinand's tutor had agreed to teach her at night if she cleaned his room, so she did. She was a very busy six year old, so it had surprised everyone that she had noticed the sick maid and had found the time to send her remedies and flowers. It was because of these trips to wish the maid well that she had been the first to notice that the maid was worsening and was likely to not survive the night. She had told her mother, who stroked her hair and hushed her gently, and her mother had asked the maid if she felt weak. It had been as Lavanda foretold, and the maid passed in the night, while Lavanda was studying her picture book now with notes from the tutor.

Since the girl was still up, she had noticed the figure of a woman entering the mansion. She followed the woman, who went into the maids' sleeping room and saw her looking at a clipboard before surveying the room. Lavanda spoke up, "You look familiar. What is your name, please?"

"Oh! Hmm. You can't be Maude Eileen Scotts, but you can see me?" Grell wondered aloud.

"Maude Eileen is in the second bed from the left. She's been sick for a week now. You, are you a doctor?" Lavanda walked closer.

"Thank you, little girl. No, not a doctor. You should not be able to see me." She approached the correct bed.

"Hmm... I remember you, I think? You feel familiar."

"Little girl, I don't think so. I only see people once. She is done, I also have... Lobo Pepper..." There was a small sound which might have been to suppress a laugh before she continued, "Lobo Peppermint."

"That is my Papa! He is sleeping." Lavanda looked up at the woman with the long, red hair. "If you are looking for my Papa, you must be my auntie! He says I have many aunties, but I never met them. We sleep in that room," she pointed to a door across the hall and two down from where they stood.

Grell walked to it, replying. "Hey, little girl, are you ill?" She felt a small amount of pity that this child could see her, and was also about to lose her father. The girl did not seem to notice the expression of sorrow that ghosted on the reaper as she followed.

"I'm fine, Auntie! Um, your name please?"

"Grell. My name is Grell Sutcliffe." She answered, thinking to herself that she might as well humor a dying child. On top of that, a child that was witnessing two deaths.

"Auntie Grell, my name is Lavender Chamomile Peppermint!"

Grell could not stop the laughter, "Lavender Chamomile Peppermint?"

"That's how the master says I should give my name. Mama and Papa still call me Lavanda Manzanilla! Just Lavanda."

"L. C. Peppermint. Hmm, still a little much. Elsie sounds close to your initials, I will just call you that." Grell looked at a clock in the hall. Three minutes until the girl's father died.

"Elsie, it is pretty! Not as much as Grell but..."

For the first time in a long time, Grell actually felt bad about taking someone's cinematic record. She knew his time was up, but the girl standing close behind was his daughter and she regretted taking him away. She hoped the girl would not suffer for long, at the very least. Only humans close to death could see reapers, so she believed little "Elsie" would soon join her father.

Baron Kingsley actually held decent funerals for Wolf and Maude Eileen, and Lavanda had cried as they were lowered into the ground. She had somehow known that they were dying, but had not wanted to acknowledge the fact. She clung to her mother, who had picked her up so she could bury her face in her mother's neck. Instead, Lavanda faced straight ahead and thought she saw red hair fluttering from the corner of her eye, moving out of sight to the cemetery exit.


	3. Lavender and Red

Chapter Two: Lavender and Red

Grell Sutcliffe had forgotten about the little girl she had called Elsie two years earlier, having moved on with other assignments. She was being chided for something as she received an assignment and she grinned before heading out to collect the souls she had been assigned. The file said there was a building collapse and several people would be trapped, so this was not a single soul collection. She looked over the list of names and stopped when she saw one that felt familiar, yet off.

The file read "Lavender Piper Manning" and she got a vague sense that she knew that name but also did not. She looked at the rest of the file and the name stuck to her as she departed, feeling as if the name was wrong. She waited for the time to collect sitting on a balcony to the right of the building that would collapse. The balcony had a good view of the building and was also just far enough to avoid any debris hitting her. She thought she could simply stay on the balcony and file her nails in wait but the name Lavender kept nagging at her. She tried to recall if it had any significance, thinking about souls she had collected that might have been given more time to live or perhaps a demon that had taken a soul she was meant to collect. Neither seemed to be the case and she became a bit irritated that the name prickled at her without a good reason. She spent several minutes thinking it over when she remembered a little girl calling her "Auntie". The girl was named Lavender. Grell did not remember how long ago it had been since this child had seen her, and wondered if the Lavender she was to collect was the same who had seen her before. She looked at the file and noticed this Lavender was thirty-two, and her image seemed to elicit no response from Grell. She let it go.

The building collapsed and the sounds of crunching brick and screams ended Grell's thinking time. She headed into the chaos and began to collect records. A fire had broken out on the wall closest to Grell's entry and was rapidly advancing. Grell huffed and worked more quickly, dodging broken slabs of the building as well as avoiding the fire while she did. She did get incredibly dirty and was dusting herself off on the sidewalk of the building, checking over her file to ensure she had not missed anyone. She counted the number of people in her file and made a rough count of the number she had collected, saw that they matched, and departed.

She grabbed a new file and dodged one of her superiors as she left to collect the record of a sixty something man and his wife, who would die an hour and a half apart. She sat on a swing they had in front of their small home, these people not far from poor. She was absently dusting herself off and looking for any bits of broken brick that might have blended in with her hair when she heard a voice.

"Auntie Grell?" It was a girl, eight or nine years old, dressed in servant's clothing. She was looking right at the reaper, and looked healthy. Grell could not understand why this child could see her, recognizing her as the same child that had pointed out a maid and her own father as she was to collect their records. This was the same girl, now two years older. She looked healthy and lively, and Grell wondered if she could possibly have a Faustian. It made no sense, this child could see her and had seen her more than once, but was not on the edge of death. She also did not appear to have any contract seals on her, so why could she see a reaper?

"Auntie Grell."

"Listen, kid-"

"It's Lavender. You called me Elsie, remember?"

Elsie. Yes, she remembered now. The girl had a name that had made her laugh. She had seen her and had not told her they were not related. At the time Grell had assumed the girl would contract the same illness as her father and the maid and was dying at the moment the two met. She was wrong, here was the girl two years later, looking rosy and full of life. Except, she could see death and that was abnormal. She had not felt the need to correct a child that would soon die, so she had not. Something told her that meeting had not been their first, she tried to think of why she felt that way because it was so unusual that she should have noticed before.

"Yes. Elsie. For your initials." Grell answered, still trying to figure out why this child could see her. Before she could speak more, she noticed the man she had been watching roll backwards on his couch. He was dying. "I have to go."

"Auntie! Will I see you soon? I think you went to Papa's funeral but you didn't say goodbye!"

"Elsie I..." Grell did not finish, disappearing into the house when someone called the girl's name. She watched the girl leave from the window, completing her statement only for her own sake. "I am not your aunt."

When Grell went into the library, she looked up the file of her collections from several years ago. She tried to find any she might have collected that had died in childbirth. Maybe that was Elsie's mother, it made sense to her. A life beginning as the life of their mother ended, the two still connected, might give a person a connection to death. A connection that would last their whole life. She saw none that might be Elsie, but saw four files that were of people from Baron Kingsley's household. Seven years ago Grell had collected the cinematic record of Lady Kingsley. She recalled that it had been night, and a servant had been at the doorway when she was making her way back out. She had stopped because a small voice had clearly asked who she was, she had been seen by an infant. She then recalled the second collection, the stable boy, there had been a girl tapping at the window. It was Elsie, Elsie had seen her three times already. She could somehow see a reaper, and was certainly too innocent to have a Faustian pact with a demon. The brief possibility of her being half human had crossed Grell's mind, but the child had no aura that gave her away as anything other than human. She could not fathom how this girl could see death. She put the files away and moved on to a new collection, trying not to dwell on the idea.

Lavender followed Ferdinand as he went out, meant to carry his purchases and help him into the new shoes and button his clothes that the tailor made. She was used to taking care of him, making sure he did his work as the tutor assigned, as he was prone to being distracted. She was busy being somewhat of his nanny, though only he called her that. She carried his bags and went along with him as he shopped excessively, giving himself things he would inevitably tell her she could keep as he had no need for them. The room she shared with her mother was proof of this, there was an entire trunk and a half filled with things the heir had purchased, grown tired of while still in fantastic condition, then shoved onto her. She did not complain, and the Baron found it amusing so she did not get in trouble. If the Baron had no opposition then it was going to continue and she may as well enjoy it. She wondered if Auntie Grell might like some things from the trunks, as her mother and she could not really find much to do with the excessive amount of things the heir thrust upon the entire staff. He really was excessive and bordering on wasteful. Lavender could not help but think she might die crushed in a wave of his discarded things someday, but hoped it would never happen. She hoped she could tell Aunt Grell about the matter and see if she could take anything.

It took six months for Lavender to see Grell again, but because she was carrying bags and boxes in a stack so high she could barely see, all she could do was yell out "Auntie Grell, I would like to speak!" She had to walk in the opposite direction Grell was headed, and Grell was in a hurry.

There was a report of a demon stealing the souls just as they were about to be collected so she had been told to hurry to the people before their time of death and fight off a demon if necessary. Grell had heard the girl but had not stopped, she did not even consider going later to the mansion where she knew the girl worked. She simply went to do her job and forgot all about the girl's words. She would have also liked to set the girl straight in regards to their relationship, there was no family tie. It was a missed opportunity.

Lavender had waited for a week before she gave up on the idea of Auntie Grell showing up. She seemed like a busy woman, though what she did was beyond the girl's imagination. She was not a doctor, the girl recalled that much. She was very busy if she needed to run in the middle of a relatively empty street. She was also very neatly dressed and was always with a file of some sort. Lavender found herself falling asleep several nights in a row after trying to make out what her pretty redhead auntie might be. She had asked her mother but her mother had told her that she actually did not know all of Lavender's aunts and uncles from her father's side. Any guess was as good as Lavender's, so they both wondered what Grell might be.

Lavender pulled out some watercolors, unable to sleep, and painted Grell. She also painted her mother and herself before she grew tired. She even sketched a draft of Grell and herself in a field of flowers. She closed her eyes and dreamt of being allowed to braid Grell's long hair, it was longer than her own. She imagined her little brown fingers working the red hair into a neat plait, as she was very good at braiding her own hair. She pictured Grell smiling, allowing a daisy crown on her head. It would look very nice on her. Lavender dreamt of her mother and Auntie Grell chatting and laughing while she ran picking flowers. It was a very pleasant dream and she slept with a smile on her face because of it.

In truth, she knew Aunt Grell seemed a little out of place. Grell's skin was pale, while her family was brown, but Lavender figured maybe she was adopted. It did not make her less of an aunt. Her mother was beautiful, with brown curls that fell down to her shoulder blades when not pinned up. Her mother had brown skin, and eyes so dark they were nearly black. Auntie Grell was beautiful in her own right, peach skin and vivid green eyes. She had the longest hair Lavender had ever seen and it was a red so bright it could outshine the sun. She hoped Auntie Grell and her mother could meet and talk soon, unaware of Grell's true nature.


	4. Quiet

Chapter Three: Quiet

Lavender was now twelve, she had a sister named Oleander. Oleander was adopted, the child of a maid that had quit in a rage and left the child behind three years earlier. The maid's husband was the gardener's assistant Roderick, and he wanted nothing to do with the girl. Lavender's mother had offered to adopt her and so it happened. Oleander knew nothing of her real parentage and was very happy to have a sister spoiling her. She loved her mother Lily and was a lively addition to the household, keeping the dogs busy by playing with them while they were out in the garden being very much ignored by their master.

Lily loved her two daughters and wished she could watch them grow up and make families of their own. She did not expect to fall ill and be confined to her bed to wait out the end. The Baron had not evicted her on account that his son had grown up with her and was upset over losing her. He also did not feel it was kind to leave two girls on the street. He instead asked Lavender to become a tutor for his niece who was to stay with them while her parents traveled to other countries to do business. So as Lily was dying in her bed, Lavender was trained in how to be a proper tutor, fitted for clothes to dress like one and made very busy. Oleander was asked to feed and groom the dogs, which she enjoyed. They were occupied and far from their ailing mother until the moment she was dying.

Gertrude had called for them to be near their mother, the two girls sobbing as their mother told them how she loved them and to be very good girls and that she would watch over them. Ferdinand even joined them and shed tears himself, having felt loved in her presence. She had always made sure to treat him as her own son after his mother's unfortunate passing. He was fifteen now and could do without a mother, but he still shared in the sentiment with her daughters that she would be dearly missed.

Lavender turned around when she heard footsteps. No one else seemed to notice that a tall woman with long red hair had entered the room. It was Grell Sutcliffe. Lavender did not speak, watching as Grell took something she did not know how to describe away from her mother. Her Auntie Grell began to walk away without a word, Lavender following after.

"Auntie Grell.." Lavender tried to keep her voice steady.

"Listen, Elsie, I am-" Grell began. She was cut off by a hug from the girl.

"Auntie Grell, why are you only here when someone dies? I want to talk. My Mama just died, and I have a sister now and I have to be a tutor and I haven't seen you in four years."

"Elsie..." She took the girl's arms off herself but Lavender took her hand and tugged her back into the room, opening a drawer.

"I wanted to show you these." Elsie held out several watercolor pieces that depicted Grell.

The reaper took them and looked over each one carefully, she could tell that they had been made with much care and she could even see as the art skill progressed. They were beautiful renditions of herself and the one that was obviously the newest looked like a reflection. She felt a wave of sorrow come over her. She had to tell this girl they were not related, but clearly this child seemed to care about her and was fond of her to this extent. She opened her mouth after taking a deep breath, "Elsie, listen. I am not your aunt. We are not related."

"Oh. Then that means... I'm all alone. I also wanted to ask if you wanted any of the things from these trunks. The young master keeps buying things he doesn't want and giving them over to me." Lavender took the watercolors back. She hoped changing the subject to the items in the trunks would mask how she felt learning that she was now completely alone. She did not even have an Auntie Grell to lean on.

"I have something to ask you too, Elsie. Why can you see me?"

Lavender blinked. "What?"

"Why can you see me? Didn't you notice that no one else looked at me when I entered the room?"

"I... I did. I thought everyone was too busy crying over my mother Lily."

"No, it has always been like that. You see me and others don't. Elsie, Lavender, you should not be able to see me."

"Why not?"

"The only people who should be able to see me are people close to death. I don't know why you can see me."

"Close to death? But I've been seeing you for years. Shouldn't I be dead?"

"That's what I am asking. Why are you, someone not near death, able to see me?"

"Is that why you're only here when someone dies? Are you... Not human?"

"That's right. I'm a reaper. I collect the souls of the dead. I should not be visible to you."

"Oh. Well... You can keep the pictures. I really wanted you to have them."

"Thank you. I'm sorry about your parents, and about this."

"Miss Grell... It was very nice knowing you. I'm just sad you're not my auntie. I would have liked that very, very much."

Grell was not fond of humans, they were simply a job for her. She saw them only as beings she would later collect at their death. It was a detatched and unemotional view. She did her job and moved on. She was about to do the same at that moment but she turned around. She hugged the girl that should not be able to see her and kissed the top of her head. "Would you still like me as an Aunt now?"

"I would, I have thought of you as my dear aunt for so long..."

"Then, I will be your aunt."

"Could you do me a favor?"

"What is it?"

"Could you try to be the one that comes for my soul when I die?"

Grell Sutcliffe did not know how to answer, she just hugged the girl and smoothed her hair. This was not like her, but the girl had been so sad and had painted her so carefully that she decided to just this once allow herself to be fond of a human.

William Spears was not too fond of the idea, once he got an explanation to why she had taken so long and why she had returned with several watercolors of herself and a few crayon drawings that were supposed to depict Elsie and herself. He wanted to investigate the girl and why she could see reapers. Grell told him it was probably not a big deal but he insisted that in a month's time he would see her himself and find out just why she could see reapers.

William Spears did not make empty promises. A month after Grell Sutcliffe had returned with watercolors of herself, he turned up in the garden where Elsie was teaching Baron Kingsley's niece about geography. He stayed still, taking notes on what he observed, the first comment being that she had reacted to his arrival by turning her head away from her pupil and sweeping her eyes across the grass.

He stayed hidden behind a hedge until the little lady was tired of lessons and retired to her room, leaving Elsie alone. Elsie waited to check for anyone in the garden before she called out for Grell. William stepped out and looked directly at her, causing her to jump and let out a squeak. She covered her mouth and looked up at him, his eyes focused on her.

"You're Lavender Chamomile Peppermint?" He asked.

"Yes? Um... Are you... Like Auntie Grell?" Elsie whispered.

"So you know what she is. Yes. I am like her. Tell me, why can you see us?"

"I swear I don't know. I asked Auntie Grell, Auntie Grell asked me, we couldn't figure it out. Please... Please... I am telling the truth."

"Calm down. No need to make a fuss. Where are you from?"

"Um, across the ocean. My family came here when I was a year old. Lord Kingsley wanted his son to be tutored here so they moved from overseas here. I was born outside of Europe, just like my parents. "

"Lavender, your original name is?"

"I don't know it. It means the same thing, but I don't know it. I was never taught my parents' language. I only remember that Mama said Lady Kingsley called us by the Spanish equivalents. The Baron told my parents not to speak it."

"So it is not Elsie."

"No. Auntie Grell made that up."

"Where you were born, do they believe in ghosts?"

"Um... We believe that the dead return to our land on a few special occasions. We have celebrations of the life of the dead. Does that count?"

"Have you been to a celebration?"

"I was born during the celebration of my grandmother's life. I was born exactly a year after she died."

"I see. You can see death because you were born celebrating death. You are very close to death, Elsie."

"When will I die?"

"No. Not close in time. Close in another sense. Think of a close friend or relative. That is death to you. Death and you are inseparable."

"Is that how one becomes a reaper?"

"No."

"Then how?"

"I will not discuss it. We are done. But Miss Elsie. Just because you walk with death does not mean you are absolved of it. One day you too will die. You cannot interfere with us. And another warning. Stay away from demons."

Before Lavender could reply, he had gone.

Oleander missed her mother and was always crying when night fell and she had to sleep. The bed felt so empty without her mother. She resorted to climbing into Lavender's bed, the two holding onto each other and sniffling. The house was far less lively without Lily in it. The entire home felt void and quiet, it gave an aura of abandonment even though it was fully occupied. The rooms were no longer cheerful and the curtains were almost always shut. The gloom pervaded and the home felt bleak.


End file.
